wintertime

[Jem]

I am pretty new to eating raw, started in July, absolutely loving it. But today it's really cold outside, and raw food doesn't seem so appealing. How do you stay warm in the winter on a raw diet? Thanks

[AutumnBreezColordLeavz]

Warm herbal/spice tea - not boiling, as it will cook the herbs/spice and burn you too.
Make the chilli and keep temp to 105 and add some more heat with chilli pepper / cayenne pepper to heat you up inside.

Warm almond milk with carob powder/syrup.

[jaurequi]

Hi, Jem,

Fresh ginger is great for warming the body. It has made me sweat at times, I've gotten so hot inside :).

Good thing about fresh is you don't need tea bags. Just grate a knob on the small eyes of a cheese grater into a cup, pour water -- warm or room temperature -- over it and let it soak. Strain, if desired.

You can also do this with ginger tea, though. They are usually strong, but, if you want it stronger, you can just cut open the tea bag and steep in water then strain. And dried ginger like this can be used a few times.

Also, I like daikon for warming, also called Japanese Radish (http://www.foodsubs.com/Roots.html)
I grate it into a cup of hot water, add Miso and ginger, shredded carrot, pinch of cayenne and have a nice "hot" cup of broth; great when feeling under the weather or when it's cold outside.

Best,

[BDraw]

I've been raw almost one year (Oct) and you know it really isn't that bad in the winter (I'm in Montana). You just do what you know you want to do and make it work. Last winter I was mostly simple, no receipes, no dehydrator.

Now I do have a K-tec blender and have noticed that if I blend too long the smoothie gets nice and warm. So that might be your answer.

And yes, I do manage to consume more hot herbal tea all winter.

Good Luck! They claim the longer you are RAW the more you can tolerate the cold. I'm hoping that is true!

[ReneeSC]

This may sound "trite", but it really has worked for me.

Either take a nice warming bath or shower, or place your feet in non-scalding water until your body temp rises.

It helps keep the cold-ness from upsetting me.

Raise you internal body temp by eating more-dense foods - not too many, but if you're going to be outside a lot, give your body some more fuel for the internal "fire".

[rawpriestess]

These foods make you feel warmer,
ginger
cinnamon
onion
garlic
leeks
peppers
cayene
cardamom
marjoram
oregano
basil


You can make soups and warm them either in your dehydrator or on the stove to finger warm, which means if you can keep your finger in it, and not burn yourself, then it won't kill the enzymes, I do this with alot of my food, I also warm my foods in the dehydrator.

When I want to warm up, I make almond milk with a date, and a dash of cayenne, and drink it warm mmmmm or I add a touch of carob or cacao for hot cocoa, again, a dash of cayenne makes it taste warm.

I often eat nut pates' warmed in the dehydrator, I also make lots of warm foods such as pesto stuffed mushrooms, neatloafs, nut pates, burgers, lasagns, rawviolies all warmed in the dehydrator.

Hope this helps.